


As the aeroplanes passed above their heads

by issen4



Series: The Minutae of Go [1]
Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-03-12
Updated: 2009-03-12
Packaged: 2018-02-22 00:50:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2488319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/issen4/pseuds/issen4
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Touya Kouyo, after Akira's second game with Hikaru</p>
            </blockquote>





	As the aeroplanes passed above their heads

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 31_days on livejournal: theme for 11 March, "and I see your progress stretched out for miles and miles".

\-----------------------

Though Touya Kouyo did not often praise his child, he was proud of him, and made sure those close to him knew it. Not in a boastful way, but simply an awareness he tried to convey, that his son, like him, loved Go and unlike other children his age was not merely pleased by victories at the goban but was beginning to look deeper, to understand the game's mysteries.

He did not pretend false modesty and say that he had no part in Akira's success at all, but he also knew that merely passing on a talent for the game and nurturing that as a teacher was nothing without Akira's own hard work and passion. It sometimes bemused him that this child, so young and so serious, was growing so rapidly out of his shadow, but he welcomed it too.

Then there were the times when the trajectory of Akira's growth took him by awed surprise, as the very best games do.

"I thought I could go forward and follow your path, Father," Akira was saying, his shoulders bowed and both hands (still small, a child's hands with an adult's grasp) clenched at his sides. His school uniform, usually uncreased and neat, now looked wilted and dusty.

"But now... I don't think I can beat Shindou. He's too strong. I-I can't see a way over him." He looked up at Kouyo, a child's appeal in his eyes.

Kouyo had the most curious feeling of reverse déjà vu, except that instead of looking into the past, he was looking into the future. He too had thought Akira would pursue a path very much like his, and despite himself had looked forward to a time when it all came to pass: Akira becoming a pro, playing professional games, establishing a career for himself and winning titles. At the distress in Akira's eyes, Kouyo realised it was not to be.

This Shindou boy--Kouyo wondered for a moment what he was like, that Akira should see him as so impossible an obstacle--was going to change things.

Kouyo's dream for his son to follow in his footsteps faded with only a tinge of bittersweet regret (he was human after all), and even that evaporated quickly. As the best Go players did when faced with an unexpected hand on the goban, he could instantly see the new possibilities flow from Akira's admission. Meeting Shindou was going set Akira on another path altogether.

It would still be a path of Go (how could it not, with Akira's love for Go?) but Akira was not going to follow him anymore. Akira was going to chase this Shindou, and whether Shindou turned out to be as challenging an opponent as Akira judged (and Akira did not often judge wrongly), he had already begun the first step on a different path.

He could see Akira's path stretch out into the future, far beyond his ability to predict even with his excellent reading skills on the goban. In his mind's eye, it ran for miles and miles, reaching into a horizon where he was sure, the Hand of God awaited.

And Touya Kouyo was content.

\--end---  



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